A Spartanburg County judge took under advisement a request to pause construction on the roughly $3 billion Valara data center along South Pine Street, declining to issue an immediate ruling after a Thursday morning hearing. Construction on the site is continuing while the legal fight plays out in court.
The request came from Concerned Citizens of Spartanburg County, a residents’ group represented by attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center. The group is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop work on the project, arguing the development has moved forward without adequate review of its impact on the surrounding area.
Valara is a subsidiary of NorthMark Cloud and Compute, the company that submitted an air-quality permit application tied to a power-generation facility planned to support the data center’s operations. That permit application has become a central piece of the residents’ legal challenge, which contends regulators and county officials moved too quickly to clear the way for construction.
County officials have not signaled any plan to pause work voluntarily, and project representatives have maintained that the development is proceeding in line with applicable permits. With the judge’s decision still pending, both sides are expected to continue building their case in the weeks ahead, and further hearings could be scheduled depending on how quickly a ruling comes down.
For now, the outcome hinges on how the judge weighs the residents’ claims against the pace of construction already underway. Spartanburg County has seen a wave of data center interest in recent years as companies seek sites near major power and fiber infrastructure, and how this case resolves could shape how future projects are reviewed. Neighbors near the South Pine Street site say they plan to keep pressing for a full airing of the project’s environmental review before any additional construction milestones are reached, keeping the case a focal point for county leaders navigating rapid industrial growth.
